Film Shorts

Exit Through the Gift Shop (R) The reclusive street artist known as Banksy directs this documentary about French amateur documentarian Thierry Guetta and his futile attempts to meet Banksy. Also with Rhys Ifans and Shepard Fairey. (Opens Friday in Dallas)

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (NR) I am not making this up: Dieter Laser stars in this Dutch horror film as a mad scientist who kidnaps backpackers to sew their bodies together to form a human centipede. Also with Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Andreas Leupold, Peter Blankenstein, and Akihiro Kitamura. (Opens Friday in Dallas)

No One Knows About Persian Cats (NR) Bahman Ghobadi (Turtles Can Fly), (Marooned in Iraq) directs this docudrama about two Iranian musicians (Negar Shaghaghi and Ashkan Koshanejad) trying to form a rock band in a country that has outlawed rock music. Also with Hamed Behdad, Hichkas, and Hamed Seyyed Javadi. (Opens Friday in Dallas)

The Secret in Their Eyes (R) The winner of last year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Film, Juan José Campanella’s drama stars Ricardo Darín as an former Argentinian cop-turned-crime novelist still obsessed with an unsolved 25-year-old rape-homicide case. Also with Soledad Villamil, Carla Quevedo, Pablo Rago, Javier Godino, Mariano Argento, and Guillermo Francella. (Opens Friday in Dallas)

The Square (R) Nash Edgerton’s thriller stars David Roberts as an Australian construction supervisor who’s caught up in a robbery plot with his mistress (Claire van der Boom) that turns murderous. Also with Anthony Hayes, Joel Edgerton, Kieran Darcy-Smith, Brendan Donoghue, Lucy Bell, and Peter Phelps. (Opens Friday in Dallas)

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Alice in Wonderland (PG) The latest film version of this story to freely expand on Lewis Carroll’s adventures, Tim Burton’s bizarre, unfocused adaptation stars Mia Wasikowska as a 19-year-old Alice who goes back down the rabbit hole to free Wonderland from the rule of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). Burton’s at his best with material that engages his macabre sense of humor, and this doesn’t fit that description. The film boasts some awe-inspiring effects and some inspired moments, but overall it’s missing the small-scale whimsical absurdity that made Carroll’s book into a classic. Also with Johnny Depp, Crispin Glover, and Anne Hathaway. Voices by Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Paul Whitehouse, Matt Lucas, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gough, and Christopher Lee.

The Back-Up Plan (PG-13) Jennifer Lopez gives it a game try, but this romantic comedy vehicle is too rote and too similar to her other movies to offer much. She plays a successful but lonely small business owner who meets the guy of her dreams (Alex O’Loughlin) shortly after becoming pregnant through artificial insemination. The film has a nice supporting cast, some stray funny bits, and one really good scene at a New Age-y birthing ceremony. The rest is just tired neurotic agonizing about abandonment issues and anxiety over raising kids, with O’Loughlin being outacted by his washboard abs. Also with Michaela Watkins, Linda Lavin, Eric Christian Olsen, Anthony Anderson, Noureen DeWulf, Melissa McCarthy, Maribeth Monroe, Tom Bosley, and Robert Klein.

The Bounty Hunter (PG-13) This dreary, demoralizing action-comedy stars Gerard Butler as an ex-cop-turned-bounty hunter who’s called on to arrest his reporter ex-wife (Jennifer Aniston) after she jumps bail because she’s found dirt on crooked cops. The two leads may or may not be a real-life couple, but they have zero chemistry with each other regardless. The action and the comedy are both toothless, and the movie seriously bogs down during an interlude when the two hide out at the bed-and-breakfast where they spent their honeymoon. Terrible stuff. Also with Jeff Garlin, Jason Sudeikis, Matt Malloy, Dorian Missick, Carol Kane, Cathy Moriarty, and Christine Baranski.

Clash of the Titans (PG-13) Demigod Perseus (Sam Worthington) goes on a quest to avenge himself against Hades (Ralph Fiennes) for the death of his family in this rote remake of the Ray Harryhausen effects filled 1981 epic. Updated effects can’t enliven the story, with Worthington slaying any investment in Perseus with his signature blandness and action scenes that are only passable, save for a good giant scorpion battle. Too bad, because Neeson and Fiennes are great as Zeus and Hades, and the look of the film, especially Olympus, is impressive. You’re best off watching the original and playing God of War. Also with Jason Flemyng, Mads Mikkelsen, Gemma Arterton, Izabella Miko, Ashraf Barhom, Alexander Siddig, Nicholas Hoult, Polly Walker, Elizabeth McGovern, Jane March, Danny Huston, and Pete Postlethwaite. — Cole Williams

Date Night (PG-13) Steve Carell and Tina Fey are believable as a married couple, but as a comedy team, they only deliver in fits and starts as a couple who are hunted down by gun-toting mobsters when they try to shake up their routine by going to a fancy Manhattan restaurant. The stars provide enough stray wisecracks to keep this thing watchable, but the only time the movie sustains the laughs is during a predictable but effective pole dancing bit. Elsewhere, the momentum sputters, and director Shawn Levy never establishes the right tone as the material veers between marital comedy and action. The leads are charming, but between their talents and those of a high-powered supporting cast, this movie should have come to more. Also with Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P. Henson, Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, James Franco, Mila Kunis, William Fichtner, Leighton Meester, and an uncredited Ray Liotta.

Death at a Funeral (R) Marginally less annoying than the 2007 British farce on which it’s based, Neil LaBute’s comedy stars Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence as brothers who are preparing for their father’s funeral when the father’s secret gay lover (Peter Dinklage) blackmails them with sex photos. The movie works somewhat better because the leads are understated and the gay subplot has a charge in this African-American setting that it didn’t have in the original. There’s too much dead weight in this large supporting cast, though, and too many of the jokes and situations are easy to see coming even if you haven’t seen the original. Also with Zoë Saldana, Tracy Morgan, Luke Wilson, James Marsden, Regina Hall, Loretta Devine, Ron Glass, Columbus Short, Kevin Hart, Keith David, and Danny Glover.

Furry Vengeance (PG) Family comedy depicting a battle between land developer Dan Sanders (Brendan Fraser) and the animals protecting their forest. Surprisingly, it’s not as bad as it sounds. The animals don’t talk or make pop-culture references, and the entire cast is game, with Fraser and Ken Jeong trying their damndest. Still, this is a movie mainly about wacky CGI animal hijinks and cheap pratfalls that wears out its welcome halfway through. Young children and the spectacularly stoned will be entertained, but that’s about it. Have the family watch squirrels play outside for free instead. Also with Brooke Shields. –– Cole Williams

Hot Tub Time Machine (R) With a title like this, the movie’s either going to be brilliantly dumb or just dumb. This movie is both, but the ratio runs about 60-40 in favor of “just dumb.” John Cusack, Rob Corddry, and Craig Robinson play three friends who are transported by a ski-resort Jacuzzi back to 1986 as their teenage selves, along with a 23-year-old nephew (Clark Duke) who stays 23 in the ‘80s but is in danger of ceasing to exist. Although some of the gags score in a major way, the dopey premise needed an even wilder, more over-the-top treatment to live up to its title. Neither director Steve Pink nor his actors are quite able to take the plunge. Also with Lizzy Caplan, Sebastian Stan, Lyndsy Fonseca, Collette Wolfe, Jessica Paré, William Zabka, Crispin Glover, Chevy Chase, and an uncredited Thomas Lennon.

How to Train Your Dragon (PG) Cressida Cowell’s series of whimsical and occasionally gross kids’ books becomes this animated film that’s more grown-up and less interesting than its source. The movie is about a Viking kid (voiced by Jay Baruchel) who has to prevent his clan from going to war with the dragons that raid their village, after discovering that the animals are basically large, scaly, fire-breathing housecats. The movie’s an allegory about the Iraq war, which is okay as far as it goes, but it turns the dragons into passive beings that are too easily domesticated. America Ferrera is counterintuitively well-cast as a badass Nordic girl, but the characters are thin and the comic material wastes a talented supporting vocal cast. Spectacular as this movie frequently looks, it still falls short. Additional voices by Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Jonah Hill.

The Joneses (R) This movie starts out well enough, with David Duchovny, Demi Moore, Amber Heard, and Ben Hollingsworth starring as stealth marketers posing as a family of four and moving into an upscale neighborhood to get their neighbors to buy their stuff. The film looks great, and there’s a sweet comic tension between Moore (as the ambitious, earnest, controlling boss of the unit) and Duchovny (as the newest member of the sales team who jokes about the absurdity of what they’re doing). However, first-time filmmaker Derrick Borte screws up by trying to make the Joneses into human beings. The moralizing in the script’s latter half lands with a thud, and the satire dies. Also with Gary Cole, Glenne Headly, and Lauren Hutton.

Kick-Ass (R) This psychotic, subversive satire on comic books stars Aaron Johnson as a teen who tries to fight crime as a masked vigilante without the benefit of superpowers. This is a breakthrough performance from director Matthew Vaughn, who balances the comic possibilities of the setup with the harsh real-world logic applied to superheroes by Mark Millar’s comic-book series. The movie acknowledges both the dangerous consequences of superhero fiction and the psychic need that they fill. It also has an intoxicating mix of hard-core action and genre-warping humor, and its gleeful, anarchic spirit is personified by Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), the 11-year-old goblin child who mows down mobsters. Pretty awesome, all in all. Also with Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Lyndsy Fonseca, Clark Duke, Evan Peters, Omari Hardwick, and Michael Rispoli.

The Last Song (PG-13) Miley Cyrus makes a brave attempt at playing an alienated, sarcastic teen who’d probably have an allergic reaction to Hannah Montana. It doesn’t work, but it’s brave. She plays a piano prodigy-turned-adolescent troublemaker who’s packed off to live with her estranged dad (Greg Kinnear, doing the best he can) for the summer. Cyrus has the character’s slouchy walk down, but her line readings are flat and she has no chemistry with the lead actor (Liam Hemsworth) despite the two of them being a couple in real life. It’s okay, though. Based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, this sodden drama is beyond the power of any actor to save. Also with Kelly Preston, Bobby Coleman, Carly Chaikin, Adam Barnett, Kate Vernon, and Nick Searcy.

Letters to God (PG) The real-life story of a cancer-stricken 8-year-old boy who touched others by writing letters to God turns into this unwatchably sludgy weeper starring Tanner Maguire. Producer-turned-director David Nixon never finds the right rhythm for the narrative, and scene after scene ends with the boy’s simple courage bringing his mother (Robyn Lively), his brother (Michael Christopher Bolten), or the alcoholic mailman delivering the letters (Jeffrey Johnson) to tears and embracing Jesus Christ. This movie has nothing to say to anyone except the already converted. Also with Maree Cheatham, Dennis Neal, Bailee Madison, and Ralph Waite.

The Losers (PG-13) Logic goes out the window with this nonsensical thriller about a group of Special Forces commandos who are sold out by a shadowy contact (Jason Patric) and have to come out of exile to get revenge. Based on a comic book series, this movie gives every one of its characters an identifiable quirk instead of a personality and shoehorns in some tepid sex scenes with Zoë Saldana. The action sequences will make you smirk if you’ve ever played Grand Theft Auto to blow stuff up, but otherwise the shootouts are tired and the quips are DOA. Also with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Chris Evans, Óscar Jaenada, and Columbus Short. –– Steve Steward

A Nightmare on Elm Street (R) Chalk up yet another needless, creatively bankrupt reboot of a vintage horror series. This one stars Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, the school groundskeeper wrongly accused of child molestation who’s now taking revenge on his killers by snuffing their teenage children in their dreams. Or some such crap. First-time filmmaker Samuel Bayer tries to make the dream sequences surreal and beautiful as well as scary, but he fails on every front. It’s a shame, because Haley could have made a genuinely frightening Freddy. Also with Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, Clancy Brown, and Connie Britton.

Oceans (G) Disney’s foray into the water world of morays, stonefish, and elephant seals is a gorgeous though soporific sea life sampler. Moments of majesty (the blanket octopus! ribbon eels!) quickly give way to the same old dolphins, sharks, and clownfish you’ve seen before. Pierce Brosnan intones the usual message of the oceans’ universal importance with the gentle gravitas reserved for reading Horton Hears a Who, and the narrative never focuses on any subject long enough to satisfy. While sea turtles struggle to preserve their species, audiences will struggle to stay awake. — Steve Steward

The Perfect Game (PG) Tinny inspirational film stars Clifton Collins Jr. as the manager of the 1957 Mexican Little League baseball team that became the first non-Americans to win the Little League World Series. Stilted comedy bits give way to stilted bits about racial tolerance, while Collins overacts and the kids are as wooden as their bats. You’ll have more fun at a rain-delayed ball game. Also with Cheech Marin, Moises Arias, Jake T. Austin, Gabriel Morales, Ryan Ochoa, Jansen Panettiere, David Koechner, Frances Fisher, Bruce McGill, Emilie de Ravin, and Louis Gossett Jr.

The Runaways (R) Kristen Stewart plays a teenage Joan Jett as a tough-talking mostly gay trailer-park girl, and her sexually charged performance makes this uneven music bio compulsively watchable. Floria Sigismondi’s film tells the story of the short-lived trail-blazing 1970s all-girl rock group, based on the memoir of Runaways’ lead singer Cherie Currie. The scenes with Cherie (Dakota Fanning) trying to overcome her drug addictions don’t pull their weight. However, Sigismondi does a nice job with the grungy atmosphere and creates real electricity when the Runaways are on stage. The actors do their own singing and are a smidge better than the real-life Runaways. Watch for Michael Shannon’s wildly entertaining performance as music producer Kim Fowley. Also with Stella Maeve, Scout Taylor-Compton, Alia Shawkat, Johnny Lewis, and Tatum O’Neal.

Shutter Island (R) Martin Scorsese turns Dennis Lehane’s novel into this surprisingly generic Gothic potboiler. Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo star as U.S. marshals sent to investigate the disappearance of an inmate from an asylum for the criminally insane. The director’s shock tactics don’t work any more in our time, and one gets the feeling that the movie would have been better if Scorsese had done either less or more with the material. On the other hand, the plot twists go down smoothly, and the supporting actors (especially Michelle Williams, Ted Levine, Emily Mortimer, and Patricia Clarkson) do some terrific work as the various crazy people populating the scenery. Disposable rather than shattering, this is still a fair puzzle of a movie. Also with Ben Kingsley, Jackie Earle Haley, John Carroll Lynch, Elias Koteas, and Max von Sydow.

Why Did I Get Married Too? (PG-13) Funny if overly long and melodramatic flick. This sequel to his 2007 original finds the four couples having their annual reunion in the Bahamas, as secrets and problems threaten to tear each of them apart. The cast is uniformly good, though Michael Jai White gets the funniest moments, and laughs abound. However the writing is often too obvious, and the tonal changes too swift and poorly handled. Still, if you’re a big Perry fan odds are you’ll enjoy it too. Also with Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal, Malik Yoba, Richard T. Jones, Jill Scott, Louis Gossett Jr., Tyson Gilmore, Nia Iman Muhammad, and Cicely Tyson. — Cole Williams

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (NR) Before the inevitable Hollywood version, this Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling mystery novel stars Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace as a disgraced investigative reporter and a computer hacker who must team up to solve a decades-old series of murders linked to a powerful family. Also with Lena Endre, Sven-Bertil Taube, Peter Haber, Peter Andersson, Ingvar Hirdwall, Marika Lagercrantz, Björn Granath, and Ewa Fröling.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (NR) Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith’s documentary portrait of the Pentagon insider who helped bring down Richard Nixon’s presidency.

The Secret of Kells (NR) A surprise Oscar nominee for Best Animated Film, Tomm Moore’s adventure is about a medieval Irish boy (voiced by Evan Maguire) who must complete a quest to help a book illustrator uncover the wisdom in the Book of Kells. Additional voices by Brendan Gleeson, Liam Hourican, Mick Lally, Michael McGrath, and Christen Mooney.